Increasing numbers of video game systems have built-in three-dimensional audio processors, a three-dimensional graphics processor unit (GPU), a high speed central processing unit (CPU) with high speed bus transfer rates, built-in hard drives, and a large megabyte unified memory. Typically included in these video game systems are various types of removable memory cards, custom game controller ports, HDTV ports, expansion card ports, and often, a built-in DVD (digital versatile/video disc) player with the appropriate DVD software drivers for drawing the apparatus. Examples of such systems include various video games from Sony Corporation, such as the Play Station 2, the Nintendo Game Cube, and the XBox game system from Microsoft Corporation. For example, the XBox game system includes a front loading DVD tray operative with the DVD player and software drivers, four game controller ports to allow multi-player gaming and ports for allowing connection of other peripherals, including game pads and voice-activated headsets. This system also includes an Ethernet port for broadband connection, a NVIDIA graphics processing unit (GPU), an Intel 733 MHz processor, and an internal hard drive.
In some prior art video game systems, and in many consumer DVD players, any scaling or zooming of images has been provided as a “stepped” zoom functionality that is typically accomplished by pressing a zoom button. Once the zoom button is pressed, several different zooming functions can follow. For example, in a first zooming function, the current view is magnified twice or by some other arbitrary resolution. For example, if one is viewing 720×480 pixels of source content on a 720×480 display, and a viewer hits “zoom,” the viewer then views 360×240 pixels of source content, scaled to fit on a 720×480 video display. Any sequential pressing of the zoom button increments the zoom level by the same arbitrary magnification level. In yet another zooming function, a pan-able bracket [ ] is displayed on the monitor screen or other video display and designates an area that will be zoomed to full screen upon the next “ENTER” button depression. This type of “zooming” method and function also increases the magnification level by a fixed arbitrary amount. One of the drawbacks of this type of prior art system is that it does not allow a user to pan a zoomed image in “real-time” and does not provide a user with the means to increase or decrease the zoom level in a perceptibly continuous fashion.